His maternal grandfather, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, had been a Republican lieutenant governor of Louisiana who was of mixed heritage and openly identified himself as black. Toomer's mother, Nina Pinchback, had defied her family's objections to her marrying Nathan Toomer, the illegitimate son of a former slave and her wealthy white owner. Light-skinned enough to hide his African American heritage, Nathan abandoned his young family soon after the birth of his son, and Jean Toomer saw his father only once thereafter.
Toomer spent his early boyhood under the roof of his domineering grandfather—whom he both admired and rebelled against—and his gentle but strong-willed grandmother. The Pinchbacks lived a life of luxury in their big house on Bacon Street, located in a quiet, all-white neighborhood, with a garden tended by a former slave. But Grandfather Pinchback's gambling habit led to a decline in the family's fortunes, and eventually they were forced to move to Brooklyn, New York, where Nina was living with her new white husband.
Feeling Neither Black nor White
At this point in his life Toomer was introduced to the world of books and imagination by his Uncle Bismarck, who shared a nightly ritual of reading with his intelligent young nephew.
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